


The Shifter's Mate

by Babykitsune9



Category: The Walking Dead
Genre: Alpha Rick, F/M, Human OC - Freeform, Mating, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Pregnancy, Shifter Rick, sub species
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-01-31 07:42:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18586807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9
Summary: Rick is a shifter, a sub species of human that is more in touch with his inner animal. he became alpha as a teen and inherited all of the troubles that went with the title. A pack of misfit packmates, and the certain need and desire for a mate and pup.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time posting on here so be nice.

Savannah, Georgia-

He walked into the little corner cafe that he had started visiting everyday for the last two in a half weeks he had taken off of work to take care of a personal issue. He usually came in half an hour early, a round seven, fifteen am. And quickly and quietly moved up to the counter to order himself a nice couple of lemon poppy seed muffins, and some coffee with a side of whole milk to help wash his breakfast down.

And upon getting his order, left a crisp ten dollar bill lying on the counter for the kid behind the register as he picked up his stuff and silently moved to his usual booth in the far corner facing the door.

And then sat down and slowly took his time fixing his coffee just the way that he liked it as he waited for the eight am breakfast rush with a small rush of excitement that even the prospect of seeing the normal human up close and personal didn't seem able to dim in the least.

No, if anything he was looking forward to seeing her up close again when she finally came in for her early morning shift at eight since that was when she always seemed to come into work at the cafe.

She was the reason he had left his home in Atlanta, Georgia for the past two in a half weeks and was spending them in his current location in Savannah, stalking her.

Her name was Sara Circe, she was a local collage freshman who was born into old money but preferred to work her way through school at a nice respectable job. Which was good since he would have absolutely hated dragging her out of a strip club in nothing but a string bikini, by her hair.

He'd had the chance to see her several times over the past two in a half weeks since arriving in Savannah, and had to say that he was more than passingly pleased by Sara's appearance (though he'd had to pick his jaw up off of the ground the first time he'd saw her in person, if only to hide his fangs) as well as her personality.

Those that she worked with called her by the nickname Venus. And the first time he had set his eyes on her, he understood why. The woman was the personification of beauty.

A statue of an ancient goddess given living, flesh and blood form.

His Sara was a tall-ish, and leggy- he liked that, just seeing her long slender legs made him want to purr and rub himself suggestively against her delightfully, beautiful body- woman with soft creamy skin, collar bone length strawberry blond hair that almost took on a pink-ish blond hue in certain light, that she kept up off of her nape in a classy twist style held in place by a black hair clip. She had long bangs that sometimes hung down in her eyes- which were a wide pretty turquoise color rimmed by short dark lashes.

But his favorite feature had to be her plump pale rose colored lips that were just begging to be kissed until they were swollen and bruised.

Smart, funny, beautiful- and as of almost a month in a half ago- she had also become the absolute center of his universe despite the fact that she didn't know it. It didn't matter any to him in the least.

She carried a part of him within her. He could smell it and her naturally sweet floral scent before she even entered the café. Hell, he could probably track her from the smell of that small part of him that rested under her breasts, but he didn't want to cause her to panic or feel afraid.

The Alpha nature in him wouldn't like it if she feared him. Especially since it was getting close to time to finally make his move and take her back home with him. 

Was he aware that he would be technically kidnapping her? Yes, yes he knew. As a law man in Atlanta as well as an Alpha he knew very well what was acceptable and what wasn't in society. It didn't matter if he was in the community or here among the human's.

He knew enough about the law to know that taking Sara would be considered wrong. However, he wasn't a wholly human. Not in the conventional sense at least, and as such, he could bend certain laws and rules and apply them to the situation and get away with it.

Especially once he had her back in Atlanta. Atlanta was the designated community of the Alpha's, and as such, once he had Sara over the state line- none could touch them unless it was one of his own.

This gave him a measure of assurance and protection from retaliation from the human law enforcers while securing the mother of his pup.

He figured that he would have to grab her after work either today or tomorrow, perhaps while she was at home trying to rest after her shift- He already knew where she lived, he'd been following her at a discreet distance to her home, off and on to make sure that she made it there okay.

And some days when she was at work, he'd go to her place and simply let himself in and explore her home to get a good grasp of the things that she liked to be surrounded with.

The first time he'd done it, he'd taken notice of many things. How nicely kept and cozy her home was, the potted plants on the window sill. The color scheme (cream and pale aqua). The kinds of stuff she liked to read.

That she seemed to like nature paintings. She had some floral watercolors and oil paintings that were beyond stunning to look at. She also had a few mountain paintings as well which had made him smile a little bit before he had moved on to check out the rest of her home.

And before he had left, he had gone through everything but her panty drawer.

Her sock drawer he had absolutely no problem with checking out- and even though he was allowing his Alpha instinct to run amok here- he refused to disrespect the mother of his pup in such a way that he would go through her panty drawer like a sleazy pervert.

The female deserved better from him, and he intended to see that she had it.

Still the entire reason for going to her home and looking around in the first place was to gather information on what she liked and what she didn't like. Everything from the pictures on her walls, her clothing, her favored shoes, even the stuff that she liked to eat and drink- had been taken note of for when he was ready to take her home with him.

Another thing that he had thought about was whether or not she should have any contact with her family once he took her. And this particular choice had really been eating him up inside. Mainly because humans didn't have a concept of pack like Alphas did.

Instead they simply had very close blood kin and some friends that were basically like family. He understood this. Truly he did. And while he didn't want her family to be cut off from her in any capacity, he was reluctant to let her have immediate contact with them via e-mail, phone calls and such.

The reason for this was because he had done some research on them, and while the mother had come up as a decent female to be around- Sara's father and older brothers were the equivalent of feral's in his mind. They were absolutely insane.

And the reason that he had thought this was because the two business men had been trying to force her- yes that was exactly what he meant, and the mere thought of it still angered him- to abort his pup and marry/mate someone that she obviously disliked greatly.

There had a been a newspaper article a week back written by Sara's mother about her husband and son's unscrupulous methods in gaining new clients and how they were 'attempting to pimp out Sara for their immediate benefit'. The woman's letter to the local press had even included details on how they were attempting to force her to abort her child by drugging her and driving her to the nearest clinic well over a hundred and some odd miles away to get the baby removed while she was still unconscious.

However she also stated in her letter to the press that her poor daughter had awoken, to find herself in a strange place, wearing a paper gown and in stirrups, horrified. And before the procedure could be done and had had to run away from her own father and brother to save her baby.

She went on to say that her husband and son were both disgraces to the family and she hoped that they both died of a stroke when Sara finally settled down with a nice young man of her choice.Rick had automatically liked the woman for writing that despite the fact that no police had reacted to the information and the two bastards were still running free and harassing his Sara daily now. And Sara's mother had been at the top of his 'you're my new friend' list ever since.

While her husband and son were now at the top of his 'buddy I have fangs and I will fuck you up' shit list.

But that was okay, they could keep being asses a little bit longer and then Sara would no longer be within their reach. He was so absorbed in his own thoughts that he almost missed Sara's scent washing over the café, mingling with the scents of coffee, milk, muffins and just about everything else behind the counter that he couldn't quite think of at the moment.

His eyes cut across the room to the woman's figure as she walked in, and blinked at what she was wearing. He'd never seen her wearing a vivid red mid length clubbing outfit before. Mainly because she generally didn't have such gaudy things among her stuff at home. Not only that, but her makeup and her hair style was all wrong.

She looked like a whore...

"Sara- Holy shit what the hell happened to you?" One of the girls behind the counter asked as she took in the exhausted mother-to-be's state of dress with a curious glance.

"I'll give you one guess."

"Those bastards," The other girl practically snarled as she came around the counter and took hold of Sara's arm and slowly led her over to a table and let her sit down before she joined her. "What the hell did they do this time?" She asked, as Rick leaned up a little bit in his seat and waited for Sara to talk.

She was attempting to rub off the makeup, which wound up only smudging it in some places before she said. "Dumb jerks still can't take no for an answer, so they set up a 'date' at a local hotel after they grabbed me yesterday while I was on my way home. I don't know if they chloroformed me or something, but the next thing I knew- I woke up in the fucking hotel room, on the bed- dressed up in this ridiculous getup," She motioned with her hand to her outfit and hair and makeup before going on to say, "Nathan was in the room. Standing over me with his dick out, he'd apparently been shooting up while I was out of it and decided to get the party started."

Her co-worker's jaw dropped at the implication of what had happened to the young woman before Sara said, "So I kicked him in the dick, smashed a lamp over his head and then tied him up with the chord and left. I went straight to the hospital and had a kit done and had the baby checked. Nathan never got that far, thank god. But before coming here I did file charges against my dad, brother and Nathan. All of them were arrested about twenty minutes ago."

By this time, Rick was dangerously close to going up to Sara and asking what station the three were being held in so that he could unalive them but managed to hold himself back because he was fairly certain that Sara wouldn't trust anyone who coldly picked more than one person apart with their bare hands and left them as bloody smears on the walls.

Instead he settled himself back and continued to listen while planning out how he would take her.

He could try grabbing her after work, late at night when she was exhausted and in a weakened and vulnerable state. God knew that it may actually make things a little bit easier if he could catch her while she was in a deep sleep and merely collect her, some of her things, and walk out and put them in his car and drive off.

If he did take her late at night, he'd have to be careful not to rouse her since any noise that she could make would draw unwanted attention that he couldn't afford if he was going to take her with him.

Sara's co-worker sighed and asked her if she was up to working, nearly causing Rick to snarl. Sara should be at home sleeping or something after the traumatic night that she'd had. She was in no way whatsoever fit to work today. 

Or at least that was his opinion, but it didn't seem to be Sara's opinion.


	2. Chapter 2

Her opinion was that if her friend could give her about half an hour to get home, clean up and change, then she'd be back for her shift and would even stay an extra half hour to make up for the time lost.

Her friend waved the words away and told her gently but firmly to take the day off. She was sure that the manager would understand and be able to reschedule her work hours starting tomorrow. Besides, she commented, Sara looked to her as if she needed the down time in a bad way.

Rick couldn't help but agree with her there. 

His poor female definitely looked like she could sleep for a month or so. 

Which may have been part of why he was so surprised at first that she caved in so easily and agreed to take the day off. However her friend refused to let her walk out of the café without a couple of her favorite flavored muffins, a couple of yogurts with fruit pieces in it, some chai tea to help her stay awake on the trek home and a offered ride home since her feet had to be killing her in the ridiculous hooker heels that she was wearing.

Sara gave her friend a grateful look as Rick slowly got up out of his booth seat and with his coffee in hand, walked out of the café to finalize his plans.

Sara couldn't take much more of the stress that her family was causing, and with that firmly in mind, he walked down the street leading to his hotel thinking of everything that would be needed for what was to come. He didn't like the idea of maybe having to drug her. Especially given all of the crap that her dad and brother had pulled on her, but it also may give him some more time to get home if he did.

All he'd have to give her is a small sedative, and she'd probably sleep the entire trip. Which would be fine since he wouldn't need to stop for food or anything. He didn't care overly much for his comfort, but he was a mite concerned about hers.  
Which was why he wanted this trip over and done with quickly.

Coming to a stop just down the street from the café, he slipped his cell out of his pocket and dialed his adopted brother's number and waited for him to pick up as he watched the red car of Sara's co-worker start passed him and eyed the slightly slumped over figure of his female, resting her head against the glass of the window as the vehicle passed.

"Rick?"

"Hey Shane, I'm going to get Sara tonight and start for home. Can you see if Lori can collect some things from the local stores. I can wire you the money for it all, but Sara is going to need some things that are a tad bit familiar to her to-"

"Calm down man, you're talking a mile a minute. I'll ask Lori to grab what you need, I just need a list." Shane said from the other end of the line as Rick began to rattle off what was needed. Twenty minutes later, he said goodbye to his pack mate, after telling him to inform the rest of the pack that he'd be home soon and then flipped his phone closed and then went to find the nearest place to wire money to his friend's mate.

He just hoped that Sara appreciated the lengths that he was willing to go to see to her comfort.

The moment that Sara was inside the door and waved her friend off, she knew that something was up. Now don't get her wrong, she wasn't paranoid. Nor did she have any idea of what had given her the idea of what was up. No consciously anyways.  
Subconsciously however- that was a different story.

Setting her tea and food down on her kitchen counter, she narrowed her turquoise colored eyes a little bit and scanned the living room just off of her kitchen and almost immediately spotted what it was that was bothering her.

Her paintings...they had been straightened on the tacks where they hung. Each one carefully balanced so that they weren't leaning off to one side or another anymore. Curious to see them up close just to make sure, she slipped the damned heels off of her feet and tossed them in the trash where they belonged. 

Where she would toss the stupid slutty dress that she had been stuffed into while she had been unconscious.

Unzipping herself as she walked over to the nearest picture, she ignored the discomfort in her toes, heels, ankles and calves and paused right in front of the watercolor painting of the red tulips and lavender and reached out for the nearest light switch and flicked it on.

Sure enough, the picture had been tampered with. 

Which sort of begged the question, What else of hers had been touched? She wondered as she chewed on her bottom lips nervously and began the slow but thorough sweep of her home. Making sure to check everything form her medicine cabinet in the bathroom, to the jewelry box where she kept some of her less expensive stuff with the exception of her great, great grandma's pearl necklace and matching earrings.

She checked her clothing, her shoes, her old nick-knacks, her collectable dishware, and even her fridge and cabinets. And so far the only thing that hadn't been touched was her panty drawer.

Which had started her weird little mental tirade that fell along the lines of, 'What sort of weirdo breaks into a single woman's home, goes through everything- yet leaves her panties alone?' I mean seriously, why was everything else worth touching but her panties weren't? Did no one appreciate Victoria Secret anymore? She seriously had close to a three hundred dollars worth of sheer, lacy panty and bra combo's.  
Really nice ones too.

Then again, maybe the weirdo was gay? It was either that or he jacked off in her drawer without touching anything. She would have to toss everything in her washer later and clean them just to be safe. But right now, she just wanted to eat a little something, wash her face, and then crawl into bed and sleep a while.

Walking back towards her kitchen, she stripped off the gaudy dress and finally tossed it into the trash can too. Leaving her in nothing but the panty and bra set that she had worn yesterday.

She hadn't been sure if it had been changed or not and had been a little bit worried to bother looking, which was why she was so relieved that her dad and brother hadn't crossed that particular line. Still what they had done to her was beyond creepy and sadistic and cruel, and she was glad that their sorry asses were in jail right now.

She hope that her mom let them go to prison for once. Especially given how pissed she was at them both for trying to pimp her out like she were a fucking whore instead of treating her like a person.

Sitting down at the small island in her kitchen after she grabbed a spoon, she picked up one of the yogurts and began eating it. She felt so damned hungry that it barely took her two minutes to eat the damn thing before there was nothing left of it.

Setting the plastic container aside, she grabbed another yogurt and wolfed it down too before quickly following it with two in a half muffins- pumpkin spice, raspberry, lemon poppy, and banana nut- she had two pumpkin spice muffin's, and a nice warm part of banana nut.

That was promptly followed by chugging some milk straight from the jug after which she put the milk back in the fridge and then staggered off down the hall to her room to catch up on her sleep.

By the time ten pm rolled around, Rick had checked out of his hotel, and was currently sitting outside of Sara's home prepping the sedative that he would be using while trying to talk on the phone with his Beta, who was quite literally losing his shit because another of the pack was pissed off at him and had been stalking him to freak him out like he had the last time he'd gotten pissed.

Mainly because he knew that Rick's Beta would freak out and blow up his phone with his distress calls. So finally once he had calmed Glen down, he mentioned calling one of the pack females to keep him company and snorted as Glen practically shouted, "Why can't you just send Shane over? He's a more appropriate meat shield!"

Earning a half growl, half choked laugh of amusement from him before he went on to warn Glen that if he referred to Shane as a meat shield again, Shane would likely take up stalking him too. And there was no way in hell that he was going to let the crazy Korean near his home for a good long time if he brought shit with him.

As much as he didn't mind the occasional fight between his pack mates- he didn't want that shit anywhere near Sara or the pup.  
After all, all it would take is one mistake. One, and he could lose not only Sara but the pup or even both. And that was unacceptable to him. Especially since he had planned to mate Sara, if she found them compatible enough.

After all, it would be her choice. Which was more than most, more traditional Alpha's would give her if she were carrying their pup.  
If he were anyone else, he would have dragged her into an alleyway the first night that he'd found her and raped and mated her against her will.

But he didn't do that, because he wasn't that kind of person. He didn't want to be that kind of person.

The kind that could so easily force a mating on an innocent young human female and think it was his right to do so despite the fact that she would always be terrified of him whenever he tried to go near her afterwards.

As it was he may have to place a claim mark on her. It was different from a full on mating because there was only a little bit of intimacy involved. Usually only as much as the female wanted or could stand.

The claiming was like a pre-engagement thing. In human terms, a part of a courtship ritual that either ended in mating or didn't.  
However he would give her a choice with that too and even tell her how it could and would help protect her and their pup. Especially if he gained her permission to lay his mark on her instead of forcing it.

His kind could always smell a forced mating and claim. Mainly because the rancid smell of terror never faded from the female's being no matter how much time passed. Whereas a mutually agreed upon mating and claiming smelled more natural.

It didn't alter the female's normal scent. If anything it made it somewhat sweeter. More mouthwatering and difficult to resist to the one who placed the mark.

In truth Rick wasn't one hundred percent sure how he would react to Sara's scent once he placed a claiming mark on her. But he was pretty sure that every hour he spent close to her, he'd feel as if he were drunk on her scent.

Flicking his phone shut after sending a quick text to another of his pack mates, his neon blue eyes flickering to Sara's home for a moment. Taking note of the fact that all of her lights were out.  
Meaning that she was likely asleep.

Glancing around the neighborhood, he took note of how many people in the homes closest to her were still awake and was somewhat relieved to find that only one person was. Now was the time to go.

 

Taking Sara from her home was far easier than he had expected it would be.

Perhaps a little bit too easy given how I hadn't had to use the sedative on her, she practically slept through everything. Rick thought to himself from the second bedroom of his house, in the Alpha community in Atlanta Georgia five hours and thirty minutes later.

He had been home for the better part of an hour in a half trying to get everything settled a little bit- after putting Sara to bed in the full sized bed several inches away among the small sea of lovely lilac purple and aquamarine pillows, cushions and covers with silver thread embroidery- while he could since he knew that he likely wouldn't have much peace once Sara was awake again.

Especially given how frightened he anticipated that she would be the moment that she woke up and realized that she was in a strange and unfamiliar place with a strange and unfamiliar man.

Not only that but he was worried about how she may react to his pack when they all came over for breakfast as usual in the morning to catch up and introduce themselves to her and scent her so that they'll know to keep an eye on her and protect her and the pup when he wasn't around to do it himself.

But he wasn't going to lie, that wasn't going to happen very often. Partially because he knew that he wasn't going to so much as let her out of his sight for a long, long time. Or at least until the pup was old enough to walk and run.

The rest of the time he was going to have various members of his pack stay with her and escort her around town since that would be far safer for her than simply letting her run around alone.

Especially given that others would see her as fair game for a potential mate and breeder.

He worried that he may have some issues with one or two of the more traditional members of his pack due to how unclaimed/unmarked/unmated females that were breeding, tended to be see as whores. He knew Abraham would be a little bit of an issue. The man had a bad history of saying shit about people that wasn't true and causing nothing but discord among the pack.

And then there was Andrea, another traditionalist that tended to cause issues within the pack. She was snide, petty, vindictive- and had had her sights set on him ever since Shane had dumped her to mate Lori.

Of course Rick had told her that he would never mate with her. To be perfectly honest, he had at one time thought about mating her, but her personality disgusted him so much that the mere thought of mating with her made him flaccid.

Which was oddly the tactic he would be using often from now on until he and Sara were closer. He gets an erection- and thinks of Andrea- and it goes away. It would have been comically funny, if it wasn't so goddamn sad.

The other members of his pack weren't bad.

They had their weird quirks, like stalking, TP'ing yards, ripping things like car doors off of cars ect... But they themselves weren't bad. Even Rick had his weird quirks.

They weren't anything terrible or even really noticeable unless someone knew him really well and knew enough about what to look for. But when he was stressed...he liked to go to sneak into various pack mate's homes and steal their left shoes and all of the socks for their right foot.

And he never gave them back either. No- he buried them and went on with his life knowing that he got his stress out and didn't hurt anyone in the process.

There were holes that he'd dug at one point or another and filled with nothing but shoes and socks. He'd heard one of his pack mate's jokingly call his yard a 'shoe and sock' graveyard once, after which Rick had waited until the cover of night to retaliate by instead of simply taking his shoes and socks- he had stolen his pack mate's tires off of his car and buried them as well.

It had pissed Daryl off something awful to have his wheels literally missing come the morning, but Rick hadn't given himself away as the 'diabolical' perp.

No, no, no- there was no point in Daryl attempting to rain down his wrath upon his head given that he was the leader of their pack and doing so was potentially suicidal.

No- instead when Daryl had shown up that morning for breakfast with the pack- Rick had been all innocence and denial as he had stared his other beta down over the rim of his coffee cup.

His neon blue eyes flickered away from Sara's figure for a moment as he thought about how scared, stressed and utterly terrified she would probably be once she awoke and internally cringed as he realized what a bad combo all of that was on top of meeting his pack.  
Some would take just a second to smell her fear and start attacking. If not physically, then verbally.

Shit why hadn't he thought this through a little bit more before bringing her home with him? The sheer amount of stress that Sara would be under for the next few weeks/months alone could do some serious harm to their pup. And that was the last thing that he needed given the fact that he wasn't sure what he would do if she miscarried due to it.

He wasn't sure if he'd be able to keep himself from losing control and possibly doing irreparable harm to her if she lost their pup. Sure he logically knew that it wouldn't be her fault, it was just something that tended to happen. The reasons varied. And tended to have more to do with illness, stress, alcohol, drugs, rape, physical violence, suicidal tendencies...

Sighing softly, he scrubbed his face with his hands and then looked out of the window for a moment.

He would have to watch her carefully to make sure that none of those things came into play. He would also have to carefully monitor her food and drink intake and make sure that she took the vitamins and supplements that he had stocked up on before he left.

Deciding to settle himself on the small seat in the bay window to await for her to wake up, Rick silently padded across the room and sat down on the plush cushion there and then folded his arms over his chest and crossed his ankles and leaned himself back until his back was touching the window in a somewhat lazy manner.

And just waited.


	3. Chapter 3

Sara slowly sat up in her bed and rubbed at her sleep bleary eyes with one of her hands before letting it drop back to her lap and looked around. Something felt off. She was still a bit too sleepy to really put her finger on what it was, but deep down inside, she knew that something was fundamentally wrong.

It took her a few moments to let the fog over her mind lift, but once it did she blinked her eyes as she took in the layout of the room that she was in and realized, this wasn't her bedroom.

Hell from the lay out of the furniture alone, she could tell that this wasn't even in home!

 _Great. Kidnapped again. Dad and Andrew had better not be behind this or I'll-_ Her thoughts were abruptly cut off by the sound of someone to her left, clearing their throat. Slowly turning her head to the left, her heart suddenly slammed against her ribs in a panicked thudding sensation as her eyes locked on the semi shadow covered figure sitting in the bay window.

She let out a shuddering breath as she saw the man lean forward and rest his elbows lazily on his knees, his softly glowing, glittering neon blue eyes watching her every move like a hawk.

From what little bit of light she could see streaming through the window she could easily make out some of his features. A chiseled, square jaw covered in a light shadow of stubble, long-ish curly dark hair that fell almost past his shoulders. Sensuous lips, with a small hint of fang showing from his slightly parted lips.

She couldn't see his body too well, but he didn't appear to be one of those huge, insanely muscled kind of guys that tended to work out too much and drink nothing but 'cough *steroid* cough', protein shakes constantly. Though she estimated that he was about six foot two, maybe six foot three and weighed between one hundred and seventy nine to two hundred pounds.

So he had some muscle on his frame, but probably not as much as she imagined.

"Ya alright?" He asked, his unusual colored eyes looking her over... _carefully_. As if he were concerned that she were going to go into hysterics or something.

But the joke was on him, whoever he was. When you tended to get kidnapped as often as she did, one practically became almost immune to the fear that kidnapping tended to bring out. So if he was expecting her to go into a full blown panic, or hysterics- he had another thing coming.

Besides...she needed to go into hysterics like she needed a hole in her head.

"Bathroom?" Was all that she could think to say in response to his question.

The man reacted to her question by automatically lifting a hand and pointing to the area across the room from the bed that she was sitting on. She'd thought that it was a closet at first, but the fact that it was a bathroom and he responded so quickly meant that he didn't want her pissing on his floor.

 _Good. Because that would be awkward._ She thought to herself as she pushed the covers off of her and slowly moved to the edge of the bed so that she could climb off. The process was a tad bit lower than she would have liked. Especially after the unbelievable twenty- no, thirty something hours that she had been through.

Moving as quickly as she could without giving the appearance of running, she made her way to the bathroom and quietly closed the door and locked it as she flicked on the lights. Not exactly sure what she was expecting when she looked in the mirror over the sink, but the first thing that she noticed was that she was wearing clothing.

It wasn't anything terribly immodest given that it was something that most likely belonged to the man on the other side of the bathroom door. After all it was big and bulky and comfortable.

But then most thin, cotton, long sleeved button downs were.  
And this one it seemed was no exception.

She supposed that she should be grateful to him for not leaving her in just her panties and bra. And she was, she suppose. But she was uncertain about how she should feel about a stranger dressing her before removing her from her home.

It was obvious that he didn't appear interested in hurting her. Or at least that was how things appeared to her. But she wouldn't know for certain unless she tried talking to the man. He was after all, an Alpha.

His eyes had given him away. His kind had such peculiar colored eyes that tended to glow softly in darkness. Lifting a hand to tap herself between the eyes with her fingertips for a moment, a nervous habit that she'd had since she was a child and needed to think. She tried to go over what little bit of information she knew about Alpha's.

1) They were a slightly more primitively driven subspecies of human.

2)They had a sort of hierarchy that allowed them to live and function much like canines. The ranking system was along the same as a canine's too. Though there were _no_ known Omega's in any of the packs.

3) Packs were important. Especially the females and pups because they were the future of the species.

4) Alpha's rarely did anything without some sort of logic/instinct driving them.

5) Not all Alpha's or packs, were violent. In fact many didn't want to hurt or harm anyone. And likely wouldn't unless there was a good reason behind it such as being attacked or attacking the more vulnerable members of an Alpha's pack.

And...to be perfectly honest that was really all that she recalled from the few times she'd sat down and spoken to other Alpha's about their kind. She was so lost in her thoughts that she almost forgot where she was for a moment, and so became startled when she heard a soft thump of the man's fist as it lightly rapped on the door, soon followed by his muffled voice.

Again asking her if she was okay.

"I-I'm fine. Just...gimme a second to finish up in here and wash my hands." She called back and internally cringed at the words she'd just spoken. Great, now she was in a strange bathroom with an strange Alpha standing just outside the door, thinking that she was taking a dump...

How much more embarrassing could this night- er, day get? Muttering about it under her breath, she went ahead and used the facilities and then moved to wash her hands and didn't bother drying them since she usually didn't waste towels on such trivialities before moving over to the door and unlocking it.

And nearly jumped out of her skin the moment that she did because the Alpha wasted no time whatsoever in opening the door and stepping into the small room, his eerie eyes studying her for a moment as he slowly raised his hands as if he wanted to touch her but was wary of doing so.

He wound up standing there with his hands up for a good four minutes or so before finally dropping them and slowly backing himself out of the bathroom and going back to the window so that he could wait for her to come out and sit down.

And once she did, he finally spoke again. "I imagine that you have some questions." His voice had a soothing quality to it that made her shiver even as she nodded her head as he said, "Alright. Ask me."

"Okay. Why am I here?"

"That's...actually a little bit complicated to explain."

"So? Try."

The Alpha snorted softly in amusement before muttering, "You're a pushy little thing, aren't ya."

"Not really. But you have to admit, this is a peculiar situation." She said as she pushed her hair back from her face some. The Alpha gave her a small shoulder shrug and then began speaking.

"When I was younger, maybe about eighteen or so. I decided to donate sperm at a bank. Partially in the hopes of preventing my bloodline from dying out if something ever happened to me. And partially because I just wanted a family. Even if I never managed to meet them. In my mind, the female that would bear my pups is as good as my mate in everything but deed."

"I waited, and waited. And looked for years for a mate to bear my pups and take her place beside me. Then about two months or so ago, I received a confirmation letter from the bank. You see, I had signed papers giving me the right to know the female carrying my young. So when one finally came along, I got the letter with her information. According to the letter, the woman carrying my first pup, was named Sara Circe. I had her home address, her work address, her age- everything that I could need to know. Including a photo of her just in case I was curious."

"Which I was. I wanted to meet her. To know what kind of woman would be birthing my pup until I found out that she was an ordinary human. This fact scared me. Not because I'm prejudice or anything. But because of the health issues that come from human females carrying one of my kind. So I tracked you down and decided that it would be best for you and the pup to be near me just in case something happened."

"A-And that's why I'm here? I-I'm having your-" She stammered out as her hand went protectively to her stomach.

"Pup. Yes." The Alpha said with a slight nod of his head as he watched her expression for any true signs of distress. She looked more than a little bit shell shocked by the fact that the pup wasn't a normal human like herself. Though he couldn't really blame her for feeling that way. Nor was he offended by her feeling that way.

It was a normal reaction, he supposed. However the moment he saw her eyes roll back in her head and she started to fall forward, he was up and across the room wrapping her in his arms so that he could stop her from falling off of the bed and hurting herself.

Grunting softly at her full weight hitting him in the chest, he stood there with his arms wrapped protectively around her slender form for a moment before shifting his hold so that he could tangle one hand in her hair and tipped her head back so that he could lean down a bit and take in her scent to double check on her.

Because physically he knew that she was fine. She'd fainted, he caught her. She was good. However, her scent told him an entirely different story.

Her scent practically screamed to him that she wasn't okay. She was in shock, overwhelmed, he'd pushed a little bit too far and dropped too much information bombs on her. Sighing, Rick pulled his face away from her throat and then took a moment to gently lay her on the bed and tuck her back in.

Something told him that the poor gal was going to be out for a bit.

He supposed that he should do something productive in that time, but to be honest, he didn't want to leave her alone after she had just fainted on him. So instead he slipped off his shoes and carefully laid himself on top of the covers next to her and gently tugged her back against his front and closed his eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

Rick awoke a little while later, perhaps an hour or two after laying down next to Sara and noticed that she was still out cold. And the early morning sun was starting to slowly stream it's way through the window, illuminating the room so that he could see it better.

Lori had really outdone herself with the furnishings and decorating. The colors, the dark oak dresser and armoire and the small vanity table where there was a small, yet nice collection of sweet smelling floral perfumes in beautiful designer crystal containers.

There was makeup set out, every color of every item imaginable. There was a medium sized jewelry box, also made of solid dark oak, set off to the side for anything that Rick may buy for her during her stay. As part of him wooing her so that she would agree to being his mate.  
Carefully shifting himself so that Sara was no longer laying on his shoulder as she had been for the past while, given how damned numb the limb was. He managed to free himself without waking her and then took a moment to check his wrist watch for the time.

It was almost seven, and if he didn't get his ass up and moving now then it would only be a little while before his pack came a'knocking at his front door, wanting entry so that they could begin to set things up for their usual pack breakfast.

He surmised that he needed a shower, clean clothing, possibly a shave and then to maybe attempt to rouse Sara without alarming her...  
Yeah, he had some shit to do.

Stealthily rolling off of the bed, he leaned down and quietly collected his shoes and headed out of the bedroom door to do all of that before it was too late.

The shower didn't take him long, mainly because he didn't have a lot to clean like a female had. Though he did make it a habit of regularly soaping up his junk just in case he started to smell kinda musky down there. And that wasn't always an easy thing to do considering just how thoroughly he had to clean his nuts at least every other day or so.

If he didn't, he tended to chafe and that made him fucking cranky. And the last time he'd gotten cranky about anything, was at least eleven years ago. And he'd been so damned cranky then that he'd gone out into the street and flipped a buick that had been driving down the street towards him.

No one had gotten hurt, thank god. And the only good thing that had come out of the incident was that Glen never made anymore attempts to remove his normal caffeinated coffee from his cupboard or tried to switch it out with decaf again.

Once he was finished showering, he turned off the water and then grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his hips and then grabbed his razor and stepped over to the sink and began the tedious task of shaving. He must have nicked his jaw and neck at least a dozen times, and was most certainly bleeding a bit before he finally finished shaving and set aside his razor so that he could grab a small wash clothe, wet it in the sink and wipe his face off so that there was no longer any shaving cream on it.

Once that was done, he dried himself off and then dropped the towel into the hamper and silently padded into his room where he had left out some clothing for himself before showering, and began to dress himself.

He was mid way through pulling on his blue, green and black plaid button up shirt when he heard his front door downstairs open and the low murmur of several of his pack mates speaking amongst themselves as they let themselves in.

Pausing in mid motion, Rick cocked his head ever so slightly as he tried to recall what everyone had discussed about this morning's breakfast almost three weeks in advance. Were they supposed to have the white chocolate chip and almond pancakes? Or the all you can eat various foods?

He had stocked up for the various foods before leaving. Eggs, bacon, waffles, fruit, bread for toast, sausages, stuff to make omelets ect. He just hoped that he got enough of everything and everyone.

Though in his case, if his pack managed to go through at least six hundred and seventy nine dollars worth of food this morning at breakfast them their pack bonding was going to have to become a every other week thing instead of a weekly one.

And his pack mates were going to have to start ponying up and buying their own damned stuff to bring. He had a female and pup to take care of now. He needed to start managing his funds a little bit better.

Perhaps he could dig up a few glass jars that he had hidden in his yard? He was sure that he still had at least ten with a little over forty five thousand and nine hundred and ninty-nine dollars hidden away within them, in total. And then there was the cash in his safe along with his spare gun for when he was off duty.

The cash that he had in his safe was usually for emergencies, though he'd given Shane the combination so that he could get some of the money out for Lori when she went and done some shopping for Sara's things. He wasn't exactly sure how much she had spent, but he wasn't exactly concerned when it came to Sara's or the pups comfort.

Hearing the vague sound of giggling from the two pups in his pack, Shane and Lori's pup- Carl, and another of his pack mates offspring, a little girl named Sophia- that he could hear running up the stairs. He assumed to find him and drag him downstairs to greet the others, when it suddenly occurred to him that they would follow his scent straight to Sara's room.

The second that he realized this, he was practically tripping over himself to get out of his bedroom and to Sara's before the pups woke her up.

However upon reaching the bedroom, he came to an abrupt stop upon finding that Sara was already wide awake, and from the looks of it, she had been for a while. It also looked as if she had gone through some of the stuff that he'd requested Lori get for her, and took a shower and dressed.

She was sitting at the little vanity brushing some of the tangles out of her strawberry blond hair when she had noticed the pups and now was playing a silent game of red light, green light with them. Giving the curious pups a chance to get in close to her and check her out.  
Rick's breath caught in his throat at the sight of Sara playing with the two pups. Apparently not caring if they were strangers to her or not. This- this little event, gave him a clear idea of what she would be like as the mother of his pup. And the fact that he was seeing it in fact instead of simply imaging it, stole his breath away.

His neon blue eyes flashed to a glowing turquoise for a moment as his desire to step into the room and walk over to Sara and take her lips in a hungry kiss, rose up viciously within him. Warring with his logical mind. However it was the fact that the pups were present and that Sara didn't know him that kept him firmly rooted to where he stood, merely quietly observing the three until Carl finally seemed to notice him and let out a little yip to announce to Sophia that he was there.

Causing the two to automatically run over to him and wrap themselves around both of his legs and yip for his attention. Rick chuckled at the two and absently reached down to ruffle their hair as his eyes stayed glued to his female for several moments longer, taking in her appearance.

She looked considerably better than she had been in the past two in a half weeks since he'd first seen her. The circles underneath her eyes weren't as noticeable, plus without what was left of the horrible makeup that her face had been covered in yesterday morning and last night when he had taken her- she looked much, much more appealing.

Less like a whore on a cock binge and more like the female that he'd come to like so much.

That and the clothing that she had decided on, a cream colored light cotton sweater with pastel pink and purple floral embroidery, and a pair of slightly loose jeans that were just baggy enough to be comfortable for her and accommodate her body's future growth.

Her hair was left unbound so far, and hung down, framing her angelic face and shoulders.

She looked at him for a moment. Her eyes wide and surprised. Much like her expression, before it shifted to something along the lines of guilt and she quickly looked away from him, causing him to frown a little bit in confusion as he made a soft growling sound that told the pups to run along and go back downstairs.

The two yipped at him one final time and then unwound themselves from his legs and quickly scampered back down stairs as he entered Sara's room and quickly crossed the distance between them and gently reached out and took her chin in his fingers and turned her head so that she was looking at him again.

"Why do you look away from me? Did I make you uncomfortable staring?" Rick asked in a soft tone as he knelt down on the floor in front of her so that they were eye to eye, his warm breath ghosted across her skin, eliciting a small shiver from her.

He waited patiently for her to answer his questions, as she seemed to be thinking about her response.

Finally she managed to say, "N-No. I was...just thinking about last night and..." Rick's expression remained curious though that quickly changed to bewildered amusement as she suddenly blurted out, ""Y-You're a lot more handsome in the light of day than I expected you would be."

He gave a small, laugh at her words as she flushed a pretty pink as he slowly got to his feet and held a hand out to her and waited for her to take it as he finally settled down enough to recall that he never had any chance to introduce himself.

"My name is Rick Grimes, Alpha of the Walking Dead group of Atlanta Georgia."

"Sara Circe. Nice to meet you Rick- Um...why the weird name for your group?"

"That's Glen and Shane's fault. The two are freaks for zombies. Says that there is nothing scarier." Sara gave a small, slightly nervous sounding laugh.


End file.
